


An Island in the Dark

by Scytale



Category: Tam Lin (Traditional Ballad)
Genre: Babies, Complicated Relationships, F/M, Sick Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-20
Updated: 2019-12-20
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:40:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21867652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scytale/pseuds/Scytale
Summary: Janet takes care of a sick baby, and Tam Lin isn't there.
Relationships: Janet/Tam Lin
Comments: 5
Kudos: 14





	An Island in the Dark

The baby hasn’t cried in hours. He won’t eat or drink anything, and his breathing is quick and shallow. Sometimes, he fails to take a breath entirely, and each time, Janet’s heart stops.

She wipes his body down with a wet cloth, but he’s still burning up. The doctor said her son won’t last until morning; it was all she could do not to slap him in the face before she sent him away.

Now, it’s just her and the baby. She’s sent the servants away; she has no idea where her husband’s gone haring off to.

There’s a jagged sob trapped in her chest, but she doesn’t give it voice. Instead, she rocks the baby, singing to soothe him — or maybe just to soothe herself. He doesn’t turn his head toward her, doesn’t even move at all — he just lies there, struggling to breathe. After a while, she stops singing. The words to the song have vanished clean out of her head.

Eventually, the door creaks open behind her. She turns and sees Tam at the door, an exultant smile on his face.

“Janet,” he says. His smile fades as he sees the expression on her face.

She rises to her feet. When she speaks, her voice is shaking with fury. “Where were you?”

“I went to Carterhaugh,” Tam says.

She won’t let herself flinch, so instead, she laughs. “Was this earthly realm too much for you, Tam Lin? Did you go back to your Faerie Queen? _ ” _

“No,” he says. “I wouldn’t go back to her, Janet. You know that. I snuck in.”

“Three days,” she says. “Three days you were gone. You rode off saying you had something to tend to, and I waited for you while our son grew sicker and sicker. For three days, I cared for him on my own, wondering if today would be his last. Where were you, Tam Lin? Why did you even come back?”

When she finishes, she realizes that she’s shouting. She looks anxiously toward the baby, wondering if she’s disturbed him, but he hasn’t stirred. That’s even worse.

“I didn’t know it was three days,” Tam says. She opens her mouth, and he shakes his head. “Let me explain.”

Fool that she is, she lets him speak.

“Time passes differently in Carterhaugh, Janet. For me, it was only a few hours — I swear it. There’s an herb in Carterhaugh that can cure any sickness. I went to fetch it, and I did.”

From his pack, he pulls out a small, white-flowered plant. It looks like a weed to her, but he holds it with reverence. “The Queen showed me how to make a tisane from this. It’ll help him.”

Janet stares at him. “You want to use fairy magic on our son.”

“The doctor’s medicine didn’t help,” Tam says.

She doesn’t tell him that there is no more medicine. The doctor says he’s out of things to try.

“How do you know it will even work?” Janet asks. “How can you trust her?”

“She never lied to me,” Tam says. “She did many things to me, but never that.”

His eyes meet hers, gentle and begging. “Trust me, Janet. Please. I wouldn’t have gone if I didn’t believe that this would help.”

By the light of the flickering lantern, she can see the shadows beneath his eyes. He went back to Faerie, to the place he barely escaped from and the Queen who haunts his nightmares. For their son. She opens her mouth and closes it again, unsure of what to say.

She just nods. The room’s silence is broken only by the baby’s whistling breath.

Then, Tam says, “I’ll make the tisane.” He vanishes into the kitchen, and she waits for him, still rocking the baby. 

It seems like forever before he comes back with their son’s cup, filled with a clear, pale gold liquid. Carefully, Tam presses the rim of the cup to their son’s lips.

And after a moment, their son takes a sip. Then, another.

“Will it work?” Janet asks.

He looks at her. “If I made it right.”

She sets their son back into his cradle and sits back down on the bench. After a moment, Tam comes to sit with her. Hesitantly, he wraps an arm around her shoulder. She tenses.

“I’m sorry,” he says. “I should have told you where I was going.”

She turns to look at him. “Why didn’t you?”

“I thought you might stop me,” he replies.

“I would have,” Janet says. “It’s a foolish idea, going back to Faerie.” She pauses for a moment, and when she speaks next, there’s a catch in her voice. “I can’t lose you both.”

“You won’t,” he promises. His arm tightens around her.

After a moment, she leans into him. They watch the baby for the rest of the night, listening to his uneven breathing.

At dawn, the baby starts to cry.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to my beta, Bustle! All mistakes are mine and only my own.


End file.
